RPO reports balanced budget for first time in six years

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) closed its books on a highly successful 2016/17 season while opening its 95th season with a trio of outstanding programs that reflect its commitment to providing excellent symphonic music to the community: Itzhak Perlman on Tuesday, September 12; Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik’s A cELLAbration: The Music of Ella and More on Friday and Saturday, September 15 and 16; and Grieg’s Piano Concerto + Cinderella with Music Director Ward Stare on September 21 and 23.

On September 1, Orchestra management also transitioned smoothly to new President and Chief Executive Officer Curt Long from Ralph Craviso, who was appointed Interim President & CEO in 2015 (later dropping the "Interim" from his title) to assist the Orchestra in a financial turnaround.

The news about that turnaround is also exceptional: the RPO’s five-year financial plan has achieved a balanced budget for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2017 (the first year of that five-year plan, which was developed under Craviso’s leadership) for the first time in six years. The foundation of that plan included improvements in fundraising as well as in expanded programming – including concerts involving films, video games, etc. – to bring in new audiences. It also relied on ongoing contract concessions by the RPO musicians themselves.

The results are extremely encouraging. This past season’s ticket sales were up by 20%, reflecting an increase of 10% more subscribers and 30% more individual concert patrons. Public support followed suit: the RPO saw an increase of 25% in fundraising during 2016/17, including a season-ending, matching-gift Summer Challenge campaign that exceeded its $200,000 goal.

“This is the first step of a journey that will hopefully take this world-class orchestra to long-term financial stability,” explains Ingrid Stanlis, newly voted chairperson of the RPO Board of Directors.
“We owe a great debt to Ralph Craviso and outgoing Board Chair Jules Smith for their exceptional work through this process. With the excellent artistic leadership provided by Music Director Ward Stare as well as Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik, and the recent appointment of Curt Long with his 24 years of success managing symphony orchestras, the Board is confident that we will continue to advance that five-year plan.”

This upward trajectory – along with the stellar reputation of the RPO – is what drew Long from his post as president of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO), where he increased ticket revenues by more than 70 percent. During his tenure there, he also oversaw the ASO make its Carnegie Hall debut, release a limited-pressing recording of commissioned works, engage Carlos Izcaray as new Music Director, expand education programs both in Greater Birmingham and in underserved rural communities throughout Alabama, and successfully launch the Sound Edge Festival.

“I am excited to assume this leadership role and my family and I look forward to becoming part of the Rochester community,” says Long. “Even as we celebrate the start of a wonderful turnaround for the RPO, we also need to remember that there is much work yet to be done as we enter the second year of our five-year plan. We need to continue to grow audiences and – like most orchestras around the country, which generate more than half their revenue from contributions – to continue to rely upon the generosity of this supportive community in order to serve Greater Rochester with excellent and ever-evolving programs that engage, entertain, and educate.”

Meet Karl Vilcins, new bassoon and contra-bassoon

A Long Island native, bassoonist Karl Vilcins is a graduate of Ohio State University and the Manhattan School of Music. From 2005-2011, he served as principal bassoon with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. For the past five years, he has worked as a New York City freelance musician, playing with many groups including the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, and the American Composers Orchestra.

Personal: Married to Aimee, daughter Ava (5), son Jacob (4), Shelby, black lab

On choosing bassoon: I started clarinet in fourth grade. One night I was watching a PBS broadcast of an orchestra concert with my grandmother. I don’t remember the piece they were playing, but it featured the bassoon section and I immediately fell in love with it! I went up to my band director the next day and told him I had to play bassoon. He then tried to discourage me from playing it, saying “You seriously want to play this thing?!?!” Look at all the thumb keys!!!” The rest is history!

How would I describe myself:
Easy going, with very frequent spells of silliness I have two small kids!

Hobbies:
I enjoy carpentry and furniture making; I don’t see it as being that different to reed making. I do fair amount of carpentry as a hobby and a small side business

What I’m reading: Anything by Mo Willems (children’s books). The life of a father with two kids! Also, I love my Woodsmith Magazine.

Favorite concerts this season: I’m looking forward to Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. It has a very fun contra-bassoon solo. Also, Harry Potter. Is there an explanation needed?

Look for Karl onstage this fall, and read more about him on rpo.org!  

Meet David Bruestle, new principal trombone

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, David Bruestle joined the RPO in May 2017 as principal trombone (The Austin E. Hildebrandt Chair), after serving as acting principal trombone since October 2016. Prior to joining the RPO, Bruestle served as second trombone with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and principal trombone with the Erie Philharmonic. Bruestle completed a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music in May 2015 under the tutelage of Mark Kellogg, his predecessor as principal trombone of the RPO. Bruestle also earned his bachelor’s degree at Eastman and a master’s from the Manhattan School of Music.

David Bruestle

Personal: My wife Katie is an Eastman School of Music graduate in horn performance currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Rochester. We have two cats, Harry and Gus.

What are you reading right now?
I recently received a book of letters from Edvard Grieg to his friends and colleagues. I find it interesting to learn about the connections between composers and other important figures of their time through their correspondence.

How would you describe yourself?

• Organized and tidy: I have been told I have an eye for detail.
•  Proactive and efficient: You know the saying, “never leave a room without something for another,” although sometimes you can only carry so much, especially when lugging around a trombone case.
• Conscientious and diplomatic: I try not to ruffle many feathers.

When and why did you choose your instrument?
My parents initially aspired to be music teachers and they had a collection of different instruments. My siblings and I took piano lessons from an early age and when we started in a school with a band program, each of us picked up another instrument. The summer before starting sixth grade, I examined my parents’ collection of instruments and pulled out an old silver trombone. I have always thought I might turn that instrument into a side table or lamp someday!

What advice would you give to young musicians?
No journey to an orchestral career is the same. Keep driving ahead. Take every opportunity you can
and be prepared to excel in each one. You never know which connection or experience along the way
will create the next opportunity for you to advance.

Favorite piece you are looking forward to playing this season at the RPO?
I guess as a trombonist I have to pick Ravel’s Boléro for the big solo, but I am also looking forward to Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite since it will be a first for me and it has a couple of exciting passages for the trombone section.

Look for David onstage this fall, and read more about him on rpo.org! 

Meet Cory Palmer, new principal bass

Cory Palmer
c Nadine Photography

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Cory Palmer joins the RPO this season as principal bass (The Anne Hayden McQuay Chair). Prior to joining the RPO, he was principal bass of the Canton Symphony Orchestra from 2012−16. He also has held positions with the Sarasota Opera and the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. While growing up in Atlanta, Palmer was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and studied with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassist Ralph Jones. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Michigan State University, master’s degrees from John Hopkins University and Manhattan School of Music, and attended a performance residency program at Carnegie Mellon University.

Personal: My wife’s name is Kate. We got married last November in Nashville, Tennessee. We have one dog that we think is a Chihuahua/terrier mix. Her name is Ryder and she is about 12 years old.

When and why did you choose your instrument?
I chose the bass in fifth grade when my class went to visit the middle school and we saw the orchestra, band, and chorus perform. The bass player played the Jaws theme and I was hooked. I started playing bass the next year!

What app can’t you live without?
Spotify, Facebook, and Candy Crush. I have an on-again, off-again relationship with Candy Crush—I
delete it when it starts taking up too much of my time.

What fascinates you besides music?
Food. I love cooking and going out to great restaurants. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hole in the wall or a
super fancy restaurant. If it has delicious food, I’ll be there. I’m especially partial to a good brunch.

Favorite piece you are looking forward to playing this season at the RPO?

This is a very tough question so I’m going to cheat and pick three.

• Don Juan from our season opener because this was the first piece on the first concert I played when I started college at Michigan State University and it’s the first piece on the first concert I’m playing with the RPO.
• Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 because this is a huge piece for orchestra auditions and I somehow haven’t performed it before this season.
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9—it’s just an incredible piece.

What advice would you give to young musicians?

•  Take advantage of all the resources out there these days. There are so many great resources online for finding local concerts, listening to great performances, connecting with fellow musicians, finding sheet music, and so much more. Expose yourself to as much as you can.
• Record yourself regularly. It’s important to know what you sound like.
• Perform regularly. Play for anybody that will listen whether it’s a teacher, colleague, family member, or total stranger. 

Look for Cory onstage this fall, and read more about him on rpo.org! 

Meet Una Gong, new cellist

Una Gong
c Jee Eun Jang

The RPO welcomes new fifth chair cellist Una Gong, a New York City native. As a young woman, she attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division on full scholarship and served as principal cellist of Juilliard's school concert orchestra. She also has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist at Carnegie Hall through the Perlman Music Program. Most recently, she performed as a substitute musician with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In addition to performing with the RPO this season, she is concurrently pursuing her artist's diploma as a fellow of the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.

When and why did you choose your instrument?  

I started off playing the piano when I was five years old. I started playing the cello in 1995 when I was thirteen years old. My friend had just started playing the cello, and she began playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" for us. That changed my whole life! I fell in love with the cello at first sight. I thought it was the most beautiful sound I'd heard and it just grasped my heart. When I got home, I begged my mom to switch my instrument!

Why are you looking forward to coming to Rochester?
My teacher highly recommended the RPO because the level of the orchestra is very good and it would be a great experience for me to start my career!

What fascinates you besides music?
I am interested in helping people who are facing poverty and disease all around the world. I want to make the world a better place. And, I think I am a good cook.

Favorite piece you are looking forward to playing this season at the RPO and why?

It's hard to choose one. It's a tie between Haydn's Cello Concerto in D (Oct. 2) and The Nutcracker! Haydn in D is one of my favorite cello concertos that has brought me success whenever I used it for auditions. I am so excited to hear our Principal Cellist Ahrim Kim play my favorite cello concerto beautifully. As for The Nutcracker, I used to listen to it when I grew up. It's just so playful, uplifting, and signifies Christmas!

Any advice would you give to a young performer who wants to pursue an orchestral career?
Love the music, feel your heart, and be thankful for being able to produce the most beautiful sound. That's what I had in my mind when I auditioned for RPO.

Anything else to share? I am looking forward to joining this season at RPO!

Look for Una onstage this fall, and read more about her on rpo.org

Meet Nikolette LaBonte, new associate/assistant/utility horn

Nikolette LaBonte grew up in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and joins the RPO this season as associate/assistant/utility horn. She also will be returning to the Eastman School of Music to finish her degree in horn performance under the direction of RPO Principal Horn W. Peter Kurau (The Cricket and Frank Luellen Chair). In 2015, she was appointed acting assistant principal horn of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, and also served as associate principal horn of the Hawaii Opera Theater and Oahu Choral Society.

Nikolette LaBonte
c Nadine Sherman

When and why did you choose your instrument?
When I was nine years old, my mom enrolled me in band class. We went to the music store to pick out an instrument and I remember my band director had said that he’d like some new horn or oboe players. No offense to the oboe, but the French horn was just more visually appealing to my fourth-grade self. Only later, did I fall in love with all the characteristic traits that everyone comes to know and love about the instrument.

What is the role of the associate/assistant/utility horn?
It’s actually one of the more unique positions in the orchestra because of the strenuous nature of the first horn parts of the major symphonic repertoire. In almost every orchestral masterwork, the principal horn has a taxing part made up of solos, soft delicate passages, and expansive brass chorales. In order to ensure that he or she has enough stamina and strength to play all of these roles, the principal will call upon an assistant/associate horn to help out. Often times, I’ll be playing principal on one of the pieces on the first half and will be sitting next to the principal on the other pieces, taking over during parts of the piece that are particularly taxing. The “utility” portion of the job comes into play when another member of the section must take a week off. During those concerts, I’ll still take over principal duties when necessary but will be filling in on the other missing part in their absence. All in all, it makes for a varied job description that will certainly keep me on my toes this season!

You are the co-founder of a program called “Olympic Overtures” that ties Olympic athletes in with classical music. Tell me more about that.
Olympic Overtures was founded in 2014 by myself and a former Eastman colleague of mine, Carly Gordon, who is currently studying at McGill University. Carly and I both love the Olympics and see a lot of connections between the world of competitive sports and the world of professional music.  We work with athletes who are also classical musicians or music lovers and ask them to create a short video of them talking about their favorite classical piece: how they discovered it, if they use it to train/relax, what inspires them about it, etc. And it's been amazing to hear their answers and hear how the greatest athletes in the world derive inspiration from what I do, just as I draw inspiration from their performances!  Needless to say, every two years you'll find me squarely planted in front of my TV in red, white, and blue garb for the duration of the Games!

Favorite piece you are looking forward to playing this season at the RPO and why?
This is a tough one, but I’ll say Mahler 5 (April 20 & 22). It features one of the most prominent horn parts in the repertoire and there are six horn parts instead of the usual four. There are so many layers to the piece that it’s always fun to discover something new in a work that you think you know so well.

What advice would you give to a young performer who wants to pursue an orchestral career?
Unabashedly, be yourself. In any situation—audition, interview, college essay, rehearsal, performance--if you are able to let go, be vulnerable, and openly say ‘this is who I am and what I have to offer,’ you will be free to take risks, push your limits, and make confident decisions. The honesty that you project will be noticed. And often times, that honesty is what will win you that job, get you that acceptance letter, and allow you to connect with your audience resulting in a really powerful performance. It may seem simple, but that’s the best advice I can offer at this point. That or just practice your scales!

Anything else to share? I have one pet, a fish named John Gilliams!

Look for Nikolette onstage this fall, and read more about her on rpo.org!

Meet Hanna Landrum, new principal second violin

Hanna Landrum
c Alex Cooke Studios

A native of Frontenac, Minnesota, Hanna Landrum joins the RPO this season as principal second violin. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and most recently served as acting concertmaster for the Canton Symphony (Ohio). From 2011 to 2014, she was associate concertmaster of the Firelands Symphony (Ohio), and has spent several summers as a substitute violinist with The Cleveland Orchestra.

When and why did you choose your instrument?
When I was six, I remember my mom asking me if I’d rather take violin lessons or dance. Somewhere within those six years I must have come across a photo of a ballerina’s feet, because I remember thinking very seriously about those two options and deciding that anything that made your feet look like that couldn’t possibly be healthy! I announced that I would be a violinist, and that next Christmas I got a tiny violin. I’m lucky no one told me about the myriad of injuries that can befall a string player!

Why are you looking forward to coming to Rochester?
Everyone I’ve spoken with in the orchestra has been so incredibly warm and welcoming. I feel fortunate to have this opportunity and I can’t imagine a better place to begin this next chapter!

What fascinates you besides music?
I grew up on a farm, so I’ve always been naturally drawn to geology and botany. I’ve also recently become fascinated by linguistics, particularly Chomsky’s theories of syntax and the evolution of modern language, and I spend a lot of time reading and writing.

What are you reading right now?
The Recognitions by William Gaddis, Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson-I’m always reading at least three things at once!

Favorite piece you are looking forward to playing this season at the RPO and why?
I’m really excited to play Sean Shepherd’s Magiya (Mar. 9 and 11). It’s a short piece, but it’s filled with a vast array of colors and rich orchestration! I’m also looking forward to performing The Nutcracker for the first time. I was obsessed with it when I was little. Someone gave me a cassette tape of the full ballet and I listened to it over and over until the tape broke and unspooled everywhere.

What advice would you give to a young performer who wants to pursue an orchestral career?
Never turn down an opportunity to hear a new performance, live or recorded. We spend so much time alone in practice rooms, agonizing over etudes and excerpts, that it’s easy to forget what made us fall in love with this career in the first place. It’s incredibly important to keep perspective, and remember that what audiences want to hear is music.

Anything else to share? I got married last year, to an incredibly talented composer!

Look for Hanna onstage this fall, and read more about her on rpo.org!

Announcing the new Patron Services Center!

On Monday, June 27, the RPO's Patron Services Center opened to the public at 10 AM. Located at 108 East Avenue, the Patron Services Center is the new location for all RPO box office needs, including subscriptions, exchanges, single tickets, and donations.

If you are a longtime RPO patron, you may remember that the box office was formerly housed at 108 East Avenue before relocating to the Eastman Theatre Box Office on East Main Street several years ago. So, why did we move back? Simple! The RPO and Eastman School of Music are both growing and have increased the number of concerts. We were operating together with one box office staff to cover all the patron needs of both organizations, so a joint decision was made to expand box office operations in two separate locations. That, and it gave us the opportunity to update the old box office on East Avenue into a modern Patron Services Center! Here are some before-and-after photos from the renovation. Scroll to the bottom of this blog for a video tour of the new space!

Come check out the Patron Services Center in person Mondays-Saturdays from 10 AM-5 PM. Single tickets go on sale Friday, July 29! And, you can still call us at 585-454-2100 or purchase tickets online at rpo.org. Here's to the future!

New vinyl window banners going up at 108 East Avenue

The finished product!

A "before" look at the old box office area, which had been used for meetings or storage since 2008.
This photo is from a 2015 staff event.

Fresh paint and new posters listing the full 2016-17 RPO season have transformed the old box office into a modern Patron Services Center!

Volunteer Kevin Stone helped paint several rooms, transforming offices and storage spaces into the customer area, call center, and manager's office.

Ed Solorzano director of ticketing (background), and Teddy Sainphor, box office manager (foreground) assemble new file systems from IKEA for our call center

Now open! Take a tour of the new RPO Patron Services Center at 108 East Avenue now! #roc #visitroc #exploreroc

A video posted by Rochester Philharmonic (@rochesterphilharmonic) on Jun 27, 2016 at 7:27am PDT